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In July 2013 the European Union and the United States took up negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The trade agreement is intended to join a market of more than 800 million consumers. It will cover roughly one third of global trade and influence around three quarters of the world’s value creation.

Trade agreements do not per se guarantee a fair multilateral world trade system. Predicting the effects TTIP might have on developing countries in particular is not an easy task. Faced with intensified trade relations between Europe and the US, a lot of developing countries fear the loss of market access for their products and a decline in income and employment levels as a result.

The lunchtime debate will investigate whether TTIP can contribute to a fairer development of globalization or if it will pose a threat for the world’s poorest economies in particular.

The debate will address the following issues:

What kind of political and economic signals does TTIP send to developing nations?

How can we ensure that the Transatlantic Partnership does not undermine the goals of the post-2015 agenda?

Should the European Union’s negotiators be expected to include the interests of developing countries throughout the ongoing negotiations?

Will TTIP contribute to a further weakening of the World Trade Organization, as it might, merely due to its scope, become a “blueprint for the world”?

Location

Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the EURue Montoyer 47BrusselsBelgium